Friday, May 15, 2015

Swim With The Go-Go's (The Guy-Guy Go-Go's, Not The Girl-Girl Go-Go's)

Was quite happy to hear from Roger Yorke of the '60s vocal trio The Go-Go's who sang on the delightful oddity "The Munsters" we posted last year. After pestering the poor guy for information, he most graciously filled us in on the story behind the album.

The Go-Go's consisted of Yorke, Bill Wild, and Jim Infield, backed by the legendary Hollywood session cats, The Wrecking Crew (currently the subject of an excellent documentary film, by the way.) Mr. Yorke says:

It
was the three of us on vocals along with most of the best studio
musicians of the time, including Leon Russell, Glen Campbell, etc.. All
the songs including instruments & sound affects were recorded at the
session at RCA Hollywood. We did do some travel & TV appearances as
the group with special full head form fitted masks from Universal
Pictures. We even got to spend time on the original TV Show set.

[Any surviving videos of their tv appearances?!]

Both
the Munsters and The Go-Go’s was quite a musical transition for us with
Joe & Hal [producers Joe Hooven & Hal Winn] being in their forties & fifties, I re-wrote &
re-arranged the songs as much as I was allowed. Bill Wild and I had
played around town very successfully in groups and progressed well in
our careers. Jim Infield lived in Germany at last contact I had a few
years ago. I now produce and manage singing artists after being
executive A&R for the Majors.

I wondered if any legal action was ever considered against those New Wave Valley girls who would use the name in the '80s. Not only did that not happen, Yorke tells us that

RCA owned the name Go-Go’s and I worked with and promoted the girl’s group.

Ha, that's great. The Go-Go's also released an album under their own name of Beach Boys/Jan and Dean-type vocal surf rock. The opener "(They Call Him) Chicken Of The Sea" boasts not only cool chicken-scratch guitar, but tells the nutty story of the title character who's afraid of water: anti-surf music? Also most dig-able: the 3-chord garage rocker "At The Beach," the Phil Spector-ish "Do The Malibu," the cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues." I'm glad scuba divers and snorkelers finally get a boss tune of their own in "Underwater." And what's not to love about a song called "Peek-A-Boo Swimsuit"?

I would be flattered if you posted Swim With The Go-Go’s. I was the only one who surfed and we all lived in California.